배방 성당

History & origins

Baebang Parish was established on January 23, 2008, in response to population growth and pastoral needs in the Baebang area of Asan. Diocesan material records that the new community was formed from Mosan Parish with 132 Catholics. It did not begin with an independent church building; in the early period, Mass was celebrated in the apartment that served as the priest’s residence, and parish life developed from that temporary setting.

As the number of Catholics grew, a larger space became necessary. The parish purchased land at 35-1 Buksu-ri and built a church, marking the first stage in which the community moved from a temporary setting into its own liturgical and pastoral facilities. Once the new parish separated from Mosan had established a physical base in Baebang, its worship and community life became more stable.

The surrounding urban structure changed again with development of the Baebang-Wolcheon district, making continued use of the existing church difficult. The parish purchased another site at 74 Wolcheon 6-gil and built a new church, moving to its present location. The need to establish parish facilities twice within a relatively short period shows how directly the rapid urbanization of Baebang affected the physical setting of the parish.

The history of Baebang is therefore less a story of an ancient Catholic village than an example of how a new parish emerged and took root amid twenty-first-century urban growth in Asan. From a community of 132 Catholics separated from Mosan, through an apartment chapel and the Buksu-ri church, to the new church in Wolcheon, the physical setting changed while the parish’s central liturgical and pastoral function continued.